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Top Ten Thursday - Happy Halloween

Today we're talking about Halloween, one of my very favourite holidays, and I go to great lengths to organize a fun party for our friends. Needless to say I love just about everything about it: decorating, food, trick or treating...Let me share my top ten Halloween DIY ideas. Most are not my own ideas; the Internet, Pinterest especially, are full of tutorials, so this is just a collection of tried and tested projects that I loved:Ghost Lights, my favourite. The original craft I found on the internet a couple of years ago asked for milk jugs, you know, a gallon? Fat chance in Switzerland... What you can do instead (gotta start early in the year though OR grab them from your local recycling center...) collect empty laundry detergent and distilled water containers. Using alcohol or nail polish remover, take off the label, google your template and use it to trace the shape with a black marker, then get to work and fill your shape! As a light I use all sorts of things, depending on the with of the spout: glow sticks, electric tea lights or little flashlights.

Bowling Pins (or just use them as decoration)

Using some sturdy cardboard tablecloth roll that I had cut, I wrapped them with adhesive orange foil and drew on my Jack'O'Lantern faces.

You could also make smaller ones using TP rolls.

Mummy, Frankenstein, Ghost, Witch? Head over to my blogger friend Michèle's detailed tutorial on how to make those cute Halloween Characters out of simple wood sticks.

If you're patient enough for paper cutting, why don't you try and make your own Haunted House? Purchase the largest thick black craft paper you can find and cut your house and lots of door and window silhouettes, leaving the doors and windows attached so you can open and close them as you please, like an advent calendar.Use the paper leftovers to cut out your objects like cats, ghosts and spiders that you'll glue on the tissue paper that comes to the back of your craft.I pinned my houses to the wall - bonus points for you if you manage to arrange them around a source of light!

Now I don't know about you guys, but I don't exist on love and crafts alone, so let's move on to the food, shall we?Do you prepare snack boxes for your Kindergarten or Elementary School kids? Upgrade them with some Halloween themed Lunchbox Printables. Google finds tons of them. My favourite is "what is an old hag at the beach? A Sandwitch!"

For our party, why don't we start with something really healthy because we all know there will be enough candy later. Shredded carrots, served in transparent plastic cups on which you go crazy with a sharpie. A piece of broccoli on top, and you're done! Jack'O'Lantern Salad! (I added the dressing after taking my picture)

Here's another simple one: Upgrade your regular pumpkin soup by cutting out a ghost of your sliced cheese, if you have a black food color pencil, draw a face -Boo! Ghost soup!

Jack'O'Lantern Sandwich If you're into baking your own bread, add some orange food coloring to your dough, use your pumpkin cookie cutter for those cute shapes. I put some ham and cheese in the middle and toasted them, of course they are tasty as is, too. The green thingies are cucumber pieces.

What else? Kids always love their Mac'n'Cheese. Here's a healthier version of your usual calorie-loaded dish.

If that was "too vegetarian" for you, here are some Mummy Dogs! Google is full of recipes and tutorials should you need one.

Number 11, dessert as a bonus...

With all those easy to make dishes there had to be catch, right? Well, only if you insist on making those Gingerbread Skeletons.(Video) If you go for candy, that's totally OK! I know I won't repeat this project because I was not happy with my royal icing piping skills. Well, I tried!

I hope I was able to inspire you, and you can't wait to prepare for your big night! If you are trying any of those things, please let me know how they turned out!

This post was featured in the fall edition of THIS LIFE (pages 10 and 11)

If you're a blogger and want to contribute to this post, please link up below!

Would you like to join us for next week's Top Ten Challenge? The theme is gonna be Top Ten Clothing Items (that you own or wish you had), and it posts Nov 3rd, sign up here.

The week after that - Nov 10 - we're going to talk about the Top Ten Scents, things we like to smell, think freshly brewed coffee, or cinnamon rolls, right out of the oven,... Here's the event to sign up.

Even then, it'd probably be super hard to choose the most awesome one! Did I tell you that I love fireworks? I love them even better when they include the following: they are being displayed near a body of waterthey are being displayed near some nice scenerythere is some music going along with it For that reason, Sydney, Australia is definitely one that I'd consider one of the most awesome ones.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is also a great place for a fireworks / music show!

Last month I signed up for Blog with friends on impulse because I learned that the theme was going to be "green".

Now for this month "starting fresh" was chosen. Against my better judgment - because I knew I was going to be super busy posting every day throughout the month of April - I thought wouldn't it fit nicely into my A - Z fitness series, so here I am again!

It's safe to say that in January I started fresh.

It all began innocently enough.

I was sitting over at my friend's house, enjoying the King's cake I made and the Prosecco that was my Christmas gift to her, and I said "after today there will be no more sweets and bubbly until I fit back into my jeans. I might even go as far as taking up some sporty activities, I wish there were some good old Aerobics classes."

Doris told me about Vicky, her former neighbor. That lady is originally from Scotland and runs a fitness studio a 10 minutes' drive from here. As far as Doris knew Vicky …

Welcome back to 20 Days of Chill. Today's prompt is #Hashtag, and I thought I'd find out about the top 20 most popular hashtags on Instagram (Source: Huffington Post)

That is pretty generic if not lame! I think the only one I've ever used is #happy, actually it was #100happydays.

Of course I am intrigued now. How do I figure out my own most popular hashtags? Good thing I know people who know stuff. A blogger friend recommended Union Metrics, an app that analyzes just about anything you want to know about your Social Media Accounts! What day and time is best to post, who your biggest fans are, the post with the most likes, the post with the most comments,...

Unfortunately the free part of the tool only teases you, and you end up subscribing...

Surprise, recurring themes / hashtags were most popular. And this is what I paid 29 bucks for? Note: cancel account, get free one, like Iconosquare: